Benami land transactions: villagers complain to SP

After detection of benami land transactions in Kasauli area, villagers of Mollon on Tuesday complained to the superintendent of police demanding a thorough probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the purchase of around 32 bigahs by a resident of Punjab at the village on the basis of fake Himachali certificate.

The villagers, who obtained the information about the purchaser through Right to Information Act, from various departments, including the income tax department, revealed that the purchasers had allegedly prepared fake agriculturist certificate on the basis of oustees of the Bhakra power project to execute the illegal land sale deeds.

The villagers, namely Som Dutt, Suresh Kumar, Kapoor Singh and others, in a complaint alleged that a resident of Punjab had allegedly in connivance with the revenue officials of Solan tehsil had executed some land sale deeds in the name of one Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Atari village of Anandpur Sahib in Punjab in 2012. The land sale deeds were executed at the cost of around `1.6 crore, whereas the information provided by the officials of income tax department from Chandigarh revealed that Sanjeev was never a tax payer with their department.

The villagers urged that execution of land sale deeds at huge amount showed that the money was invested by some another persons of Punjab in the name of Sanjeev.

The villagers said information provided by the income tax department showed that since Sanjeev was not a tax payer with the department till date, investment of big amount was indicative of black money.

Besides, Sanjeev in his sale deeds had mentioned the mode of payment through cheques, but the entire payment was made in cash. The villagers alleged that the entire land had been purchased by a builder of Punjab, who had constantly been threatening the villagers of dire consequences if they did not sale the left-out land to Sanjeev. They alleged that Sanjeev and others were vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of the village.

The villagers finally urged the superintendent of police to probe the entire matter thoroughly as the land had been purchased by preparing a fake Himachali domicile and agriculturist certificates.

Confirming the complaint, superintendent of police Ramesh Chhajta said the probe had been entrusted to deputy SP Shweta Thakur adding that needed lawful process to initiate the action would be started shortly.